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WHAT'S NEXT BY ELDERSIGN
Chapter 3:Mana Anaylsis

Chapter 3:Mana Anaylsis

As Spiral watches Magnus walk into the sea of trees, he starts to come to grip with what had transpired in the past month. He spent a whole month in game to get a library card when his friends had tried to send him coins to just buy the library card. If Spiral's memories were correct his friends had sent him at least 1 gold in total to try and convince him to buy the library card, and start what he wanted to do at the library. This was because what Spiral was doing wasn't even a quest, and had no repercussions.

The reason why the task he was given wasn't a quest in the first place was because the head master wasn't in the library to grant him the Index skill. The lady that had given him the task expected him to quit when he had saw the Index, since it would have been far easier to just earn 10 silver outside. When the librarians saw that Spiral was going to actually learn the Index skill manually by reading a book that had no benefits to him they were actually quite shocked. Though after awhile the librarians just saw him reading the Index as a common occurrence. His friends had also stopped trying to convince him to stop reading the Index, since they noticed that it was rather pointless. When he finally snapped out of the trace he saw the head master in front of him offering him a unknown class. Now that Spiral finally came to grips with what had happened so far, he opens his status to see what changed.

“Status” (Spiral)

[quart=Name,Class]Spiral,Researcher[/quart][quart=Level,Race]1,Human/High Elf[/quart][quart=Health,Health Regen/Min]215,11.2[/quart][quart=Mana,Mana Regen/Min]2500,65.3[/quart][quart=Stamina,Stamina Regen/Min]64,12.8[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]8,10[/quart][quart=Wisdom,Intelligence]64,22[/quart][quart=Stamina,Vitality]8,8[/quart][quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart]

Stat Window

Dexterity

12

* As you are part High Elf light magic will do 15% less damage to you

* As you are part High Elf dark magic will deal 15% more damage to you

* As you are part Human your ability to adapt to any melee fighting style will receive no bonus

* As you are part High Elf your ability to control mana is improved slightly

* As you are a Researcher you are granted the highest access within the Library

* As you are a Researcher you are able to publish books (warning fame or infamy my raise depending on what you publish)

* As you are a Researcher you are to derive methods/skills out of books

* As you are a Researcher you are able to learn any skill if you have a thorough understanding of how it works (warning even if you learn a skill you maybe unable to use it)

Spiral was quite happy when he saw his status, since he didn't expect a Researcher would be such a great class. He was able to basically learn anything related to anything as long as information was written on it, and probably almost everything was written somewhere in this fantasy world. He was also granted access anywhere within this library, and had the ability to locate any book he wished as well. This screamed over powered in his head as long as he kept reading, and his intelligence and wisdom had increased considerably. The reason why the Index didn't improve greatly improve his intelligence stat was because titles, descriptions and locations could only grant so much information. While all the information written in the Index taught him what books the library had, even lost books were written within the information of the Index. Knowing every book allowed him to make far more informed decisions on what books he should look for when he searched for anything within the library giving his character the great increase in wisdom.

Now that he didn't have to read the Index, and was given access anywhere within the Library he could begin his research into magic. He tried to remember all the books that had a description or title relevant to how to use magic, and he knew instinctively where they were. The problem was that there were actually too many titles, since almost all magic books mentioned how to used magic. He then narrowed down his search to any book that had something relevant to magic theories, since they would probably be where he should start if he wanted to use magic in it's purest sense. The query told him that about 200 books were written that had a title or description that matched what he considered magic theory. He was going to start searching for the first title, but finally noticed that he was hungry. He was thinking should he just eat his rye bread, but wondered if he could still eat at the dormitory’s dinning quarters. As he thought about eating at the dinning quarters, instantly his mind gave him a map to arrive at the dinning quarters. He thought about maybe getting the coins that his friends gave him before going to the dinning quarters, but he had a feeling his class researcher would probably give him free food at the dinning quarters.

Spiral arrived at the dinning quarters and saw one of the cooking staff sitting there with some left over bread on one of the tables. It was actually a little after evening and all the Library staff members had already ate lunch and finish cleaning up the area. The bread was the left overs from lunch and the rest of the cooking staff had went out to prepare food for dinner. The staff member sitting on one of the desks was still there to finish up cleaning. When the staff member noticed Spiral she greeted him, since every staff member at this point knew of the adventurer that was reading the Index thoroughly.

“Hello are you by any chance hungry?” (Staff smiles)

“Yes, I just finished the Index and noticed that I was hungry so I came to see if I could eat something” (Spiral hesitant)

“Sure, I'll get you some of the leftover soup just sit at the table with the bread on it” (Staff smiles and walks into the kitchen)

Spiral does as he was told and sit on the table with the bread and wait for the staff member to return with soup. He waits there for about a minute when the staff member returns with a bowl of soup in her hand. She puts the bowl of soup on the table on sits across Spiral and tries to start a conversation.

“May I call you Spiral?” (Staff)

“Sure, but how do you know my name?” (Spiral)

“Well everyone in the Library knows of the adventurer trying to learn the Index skill through reading the Index, since you have reading for about 1 month now” (Staff)

“I see, well may I have the pleasure of knowing your name?” (Spiral smiles)

“You may, my name is Tracy” (Tracy)

“Hello Tracy, I'm no longer a temporary librarian and don't have any coins on me am I still able to eat in this dinning area for free?” (Spiral hesitant)

“You didn't know? The head master has told us you are now a researcher so you get your very own room inside the dormitory, and get to eat here whenever you want” (Tracy smiles)

“I didn't know that, thanks for telling me” (Spiral)

“So may I ask you why did you start reading the Index? Since there were many different theories about why you were reading it. The most widespread rumor was that you bet someone that you would go bold if you didn't finish the Index.” (Tracy)

“Wait what? How did that rumor appear?” (Spiral)

“I guess it was because of your interesting hair style” (Tracy laughs)

Spiral begins to tell her the story of how he came to the Library to get a library card, but had no coins on him at the time and asked to work here for the payment. Then how he meet Kite and started reading the Index for the skill, and eventually lost track of time.

“Well that was anti-climatic, you weren't trying to find a book that was about slaying some mystical dragon, or trying to find out some lost book that leads you to a lost noble title, or my personal favorite some secret book that allows you to change your hair style on a whim” (Tracy smiles)

“Why always the hair?” (Spiral)

“It was probably because your hair style was eye catching, and the staff had nothing to go by except your worn down cloths and eye catching hair style” (Tracy)

“I see, that makes sense I should probably get a change of clothes after this” (Spiral)

“You probably should but I thought you had no coins?” (Tracy)

“Well my friends set me probably around 1 gold or more awhile back, but I never had the chance to get it” (Spiral)

“I see, but I would think the head master would have given you a set of clothes.” (Tracy)

“Really? I should go see him and ask could he give me a set of clothes then.” (Spiral)

“Yes, but I would suggest you see your new room first since it was the head master himself that assigned it. It might be possible that he already put your new set of clothes in there” (Tracy)

“That makes sense I should probably check out my room first then, thanks for the advice” (Spiral)

“Your welcome, since you finished your meal you should probably start your tasks at hand, since I think you'll probably become as busy as the head master very soon” (Tracy smiles and leaves the table)

“Thanks for your assistance Tracy I'll see you around” (Spiral)

You have eaten the Librarian's Leftover Lunch and will recover health, mana and stamina 25% faster for 24 hours

Spiral watches as Tracy enters the kitchen, and then begins to try and use Index to locate his room. In an instant the map to his room appeared in his mind, and he got up and began walking towards him new room. He went through the dormitory hall, and up a few stairs and through a heavy door until he saw a room that had the plate “Spiral” hanging outside. He put his hand on the handle of the door and at that moment he felt as if something was scanning him.

Spiral guessed that it was some sort of magic the Library used to prevent unauthorized access and walked inside. He then saw a set of clothes that was neatly folded and placed on top of a king sized bed in the middle of the room with a note placed on top. Spiral walked towards the note and it read “Congratulations on becoming a researcher, I hope this set of clothes will help you towards your goals, from Magnus.” Spiral smiled and began unequipping his old clothes. It took him awhile to figure out how to actually unequip his old clothes, since when he tried to take them off like he did in real life he would get a message that said “invalid unequipping method.” He eventually just tried to equip his new clothes by hold them up and saying “equip” in which they appeared on him one by one. He walked to the mirror inside the room and started laughing as he saw his reflection, he was wearing a white tail jacket with silver linings, a black cloak held together by a silver chain near his collar bone and a pair of white pants with silver lining. He felt like he was cosplaying a white supreme king version of Judai in cloth form if it existed. It took awhile for him to calm down, once he calmed down he called his equipment screen since he hadn't seen what the stats of his new gear had.

“Equipment” (Spiral)

[quart=Defense:,Durability:]15,25/25[/quart][quart=Quality:,Type:]Unique,Chest[/quart]

Tail Coat of the Researcher

A unique looking jacket made by a master tailor for a researcher

Effects:

+25 Intelligence

+10 Wisdom

Requirements:

Class: Researcher

[quart=Defense:,Durability:]10,25/25[/quart][quart=Quality:,Type:]Unique,Legs[/quart]

Tail Pants of the Researcher

A unique looking pair of pants made by a master tailor for a researcher

Effects:

+15 Intelligence

+10 Wisdom

Requirements:

Class: Researcher

[quart=Defense:,Durability:]0,10/10[/quart][quart=Quality:,Type:]Unique,Back[/quart]

Cape of the Researcher

A unique looking cape made by a master tailor for a researcher

Effects:

+5 Intelligence

+5 Wisdom

Requirements:

Class: Researcher

[quart=Defense:,Durability:]10,25/25[/quart][quart=Quality:,Type:]Unique,Feet[/quart]

Boots of the Researcher

A unique looking pair of boots made by a master leather worker for a researcher

Effects:

+10 Stamina

+10 Vitality

Requirements:

Class: Researcher

Spiral was smiling while reading the description of his new equipment, but he noticed that his clothes had almost no defense. He definitely wasn't going to tank anything very soon with his new equipment, and everything was hinting towards using magic to defeat his enemies. He had a increase in vigor to research the subject that brought him to the Library in the first place, not that it was low in the first place. He then begun to open his status window to see how much stronger he actually became.

“status” (Spiral)

[quart=Name,Class]Spiral,Researcher[/quart][quart=Level,Race]1,Human/High Elf[/quart][quart=Health,Health Regen/Min]471,15.8[/quart][quart=Mana,Mana Regen/Min]3546,139.9[/quart][quart=Stamina,Stamina Regen/Min]144,28.8[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]8,10[/quart][quart=Wisdom,Intelligence]64+25,22+45[/quart][quart=Stamina,Vitality]8+10,8+10[/quart][quart=Fame,Infamy]0+100,0[/quart]

Stat Window

Dexterity

12

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* As you are part High Elf light magic will do 15% less damage to you

* As you are part High Elf dark magic will deal 15% more damage to you

* As you are part Human your ability to adapt to any melee fighting style will receive no bonus

* As you are part High Elf your ability to control mana is improved slightly

* As you are a Researcher you are granted the highest access within the Library

* As you are a Researcher you are able to publish books (warning fame or infamy my raise depending on what you publish)

* As you are a Researcher you are to derive methods/skills out of books

* As you are a Researcher you are able to learn any skill if you have a thorough understanding of how it works (warning even if you learn a skill you maybe unable to use it)

* As you are wearing the full researcher set your fame is temporary increased by 100

Spiral thought to himself he was now the greatest level 1 that existed in game, but then after thought who would stay level one in the first place and sighs. His stats was now that of a level 44 player without any equipment, which was actually very high but Spiral didn't know that. He began to try and calm himself down from smiling about his new increase in stats, and once he was calmer he began restarting the search for magic theory books inside the Library. The moment he located the first book and willed himself to go and get it a message popped up in front of him along with the book he was going to get.

Updated Skill:Index

Allows the user to locate any book within the Library. This skill can also guide the user to any location they wish to reach as long as they have permission to enter.

As the user has mastered this skill he is able to call or return any book within the Library. The user is also able to return any book to the Library regardless of distance as long as it has the Library's magic on it and the user has sufficient mana.(Use to retrieve lost or stolen library books)

Mana Cost: varies depending on distance, and location of where return was cast

Skill Level: Mastered

Spiral started to remember Kite saying something about the head master being out and having to manually return the books in the pile when he saw the update on the Index skill. Spiral thought to himself so that was what Kite meant, when he finish recalling the event. The reason for the piles of books in the area Spiral originally saw was because it was the arena where the head master would use his Index skill to sort them back into the Library. The area was used when a book that was rarely checked out and probably wouldn't be needed for awhile was placed. The head master was normally very busy so that area was cleared by him only once in awhile when he had the time to spare. Since the head master was out for a month prior to Spiral's arrival at the Library, the staff thought it might be better to try and manually sort them incase someone actually requested a book in the pile with the head master out.

With the book he was going to look for in his hands and the ability to get and return any book within the library he was ready to start his research into magic. He went and sat at the large table inside his room, and begun reading the first book he got on magic theory. Spiral sat at his studies for around a week, and basically repeated what he did when he read the Index. The only difference was that he was less dazed and chatted with Tracy and Kite in the dinning quarters.

After a week in game he managed to finish all the books on magic theory, and learned a lot of things but nothing on what he wanted. He didn't generate any skill which was weird because he thought even without the researcher class there should have been a skill generated from learning all that he did. He was even more frustrated since he was the class that learned skills from the research of others. The only thing he learned from all the reading was about the religions of Fantasy Road and how little people understood what was magic in this world. The residences of this world could cast spells that could devastate their enemies, but had very little information as to what magic was. The only magic theory that came close to what he was looking for was how magic was a source within the user and extracted outwards to generate an effect. Spiral didn't believe a lot of the stories about the origin of magic due to the Gods of the world, since he was a residence of the real world and knew that this world's true God was the AI created by Alice. If anything the creation of this world revolved around Alice and what it did, which was what Spiral was trying to deduce. Spiral decided to try and write his own theory that would make sense to him, but cursed himself for not having the materials to do so. He then remembered that Magnus was in the Library and he would probably have what he was looking for so he set off to find him.

Spiral used the Index skill to locate where Magnus was and begun his walk towards Magnus's quarters. To Spiral's surprise it wasn't located far from him at all, Magnus's quarters was basically across the hall from his own. The reason for this was because the floor he was on was meant for the administrators of the Library. Magnus was a researcher and had not given the class to anyone else since the establishment of the Library, and when he gave the class to Spiral he was automatically promoted to an administrator. Spiral stopped in front of the door leading to Magnus's quarter and knocked. He waited awhile until he heard Magnus open the door, when he saw Spiral he smiled to greet him.

“Hello Spiral what brings you to my quarters?” (Magnus)

“I was wondering do you have the materials for me to write my own book that I could borrow?” (Spiral)

The moment he heard what Spiral had asked him Magnus was a little shocked, since he didn't expect Spiral to try and publish anything for awhile. Magnus had what Spiral was looking for and had planned to give him it, but wondered what he was going to publish.

“May I ask what are you trying to publish?” (Magnus)

“What do you mean by publish?” (Spiral)

Magnus was confused by how Spiral answered his question with a question.

“I mean by writing a book, and spreading it throughout the land” (Magnus)

“I see, I have no intention of spreading the book I was going to write, but you may read it if you want after I'm done. I believe what I'm going to write might generate more infamy then fame if spread due to the content.” (Spiral)

“I'm very curious now, what might possible generate such high infamy from what your trying to write” (Magnus)

“I'm trying to write a different version of what magic really is in this world, and I have a feeling the moment the churches in this world reads it they will be after my head...” (Spiral)

“I see, this is indeed troubling. I would like to read what you are writing that could potentially generate such resentment from the churches. The location to the materials your looking for is located here” (Magnus generate a map using magic in front of him)

The moment Spiral sees the map he knew exactly where Magnus was pointing to, which was basically one floor down in a storage room. Spiral thanks Magnus and promises he will show him the finish work when it was done, and heads toward the storage room. Spiral had no problems finding what he was looking for inside the storage room, and put what he needed into his inventory and went back to his room. When he returned to his room he took out all the materials he took from the storage room and place them on the table.  

Spiral then began to try and create his own hypothesis for magic, since everything he read on magic theory generated more questions then it answered. He began to use the information he had from the real world and began trying to integrate magic into theories they had in real life.

He thought if Fantasy Road was created by an AI that knew the laws of physics and thermodynamics then his hypothesis might actually be more relevant then all the speculations he read as theories. He began writing about how magic followed the same laws of thermodynamics, except that instead of actual entropy it was something like magic entropy. That Fantasy Road used the same principles of the real world and added the term he coined as magic entropy which was parallel in meaning to entropy. That the world didn't begin with the world tree Yggdrasil, but instead it began from the AI Alice used to spawn the world tree. He began writing how the users of magic was basically analogous to a system that processed this magic entropy and by having higher intelligence or by using magic enhancing items they would increase the efficiency of the system known as the user. This would account for why there was an difference in strength of the same magic cast by two different magician with different stats.

This was also why he wrote it should be theoretically possible for any spell to go beyond the user's own capacity if they try putting more energy into the system then needed, but controlling such an output would depend purely on the user. It was obviously not very safe for a magician to try and use this method to strengthen their skills, but from what he had read during his research on magic theory some have actually tried. They explain it as the phenomena when magic becomes unstable due to the user's inexperience when trying to put more magic into their spell then they could handle. The output of successful cases had increased effectiveness, but was deemed unsuitable to the common magician due to the high chance of self destruction. Spiral obviously didn't fully agree with their theories or hypotheses on magic, but since he couldn't actually disprove their claims he just wrote his own.

He then began writing about how the wisdom stat was where the system draws the form of energy it was suppose to process or mana in this case. The process of casting a spell, was basically the formation of a specific system that world translate mana into something else. That would mean that mana must have a higher potential then the spell being cast by the magician if the laws of thermodynamics were to be true for magic. He hypothesized that the more mana a spell cost the more work it must have required to change it's form, and that the more closer the spell was to mana the less work it would require to change it's form. This would mean that the AI Alice used to create the game either incorporated heat death or just ignored it either way it truly didn't matter, since he wasn't going to experience it anytime soon. When he finally wrote down everything he wanted to about magic into the book he wrote on the cover “Mana Theory by Spiral.”  The moment he finished authoring the book he saw a window appear before him.

You have wrote the book “Mana Theory” which contains the ideas of how mana is changed from form to form. The book contains a different origin of creation for justification of the information being presented. For every person that reads this book your fame will increase by 1, and infamy to the churches by 1.

For understanding how mana is changed from form to form you have gained the skill “Mana Analysis”

Once Spiral saw that he finally learned a skill that had to do with magic theory he was quite happy. It took him quite awhile to finish writing the book before him, and the results was exactly what he wanted a skill that had to do with magic theory. He then opened his skill window to see what the skill did.

“Skills” (Spiral)

Skill:Index

Allows the user to locate any book within the Library. This skill can also guide the user to any location they wish to reach as long as they have permission to enter.

As the user has mastered this skill he is able to call or return any book within the Library. The user is also able to return any book to the Library regardless of distance as long as it has the Library's magic on it and the user has sufficient mana.(Use to retrieve lost or stolen library books)

Mana Cost: varies depending on distance, and location of where return was cast

Skill Level: Mastered

New Skill Aquired:Mana Analysis

Allows the user to analysis how mana is used. This skill passively increases the ability of the user to control the amount of mana placed into a spell. (Warning a skill that has been strengthen through the means of increasing mana cost can still self destruct)

For being the researcher that hypothesized this theory the skill will start at Expert - 1

Once Spiral finished reading the description of his new skill he was temped to try it, but the only problem was that he hadn't learned a spell that cost any mana. The only other skill he knew was the Index skill, which only cost mana when he tried to return a book to the library. This was a serious problem when he wanted try out his new skill, so he began researching about the most basic fire skill, Fireball. After reading a book on how novice magicians invoked Fireball he heard the signature ding sound. Spiral then tried to check only his new skill.

“New skills” (Spiral)

New Skill Aquired:Fireball

Allows the user to form a ball of fire using mana. Due to the researcher's lack of knowledge on fire magic this skill can not pass the rank of Beginner until the researcher has a better grasp over fire magic.

Skill Level: Beginner – 1

Spiral noticed that his fireball had a limit placed on its maximum proficiency due to probably his class. Spiral ignored this fact for now, since he just wanted to try out the effect of Mana Analysis. He noticed that it was already night inside the game and that it was probably not very wise for him to test out his new skill at night, so he just logged off on his bed and waited for sunrise.